There’s a 1948 American propaganda film called “Make Mine Freedom” that tells
us some of the dangers of an “imported doubletalk” called “-Ism.” Since it was
made during the Cold War it’s McCarthey-esque hamfistedness shows which ‘ism’
they were particularly concerned about without mentioning any one specifically.
It’s often shared by conservatives alongside accusations that some liberal is a
full-blown communist, the next Marx/Lennin/Mao, or they’re just generally
un-American. Watching this short you’ll never hear the word “capitalism,” but
after some consideration it seems the capitalistic world has turned out much
like this evil nearly-nameless ‘ism.’

“Ism will cure any ailment of the body politic,” claims Dr. Utopia, as he
presents bottles of ‘ISM’ to a laborer, a farmer, a manufacturer, a politician,
and a regular Joe. Like snake-oil salesmen of yore, Dr Utopia over-sells his
product, even going so far to claim it will improve the weather. But before
‘ism’ can cure the various characters they must sign a contract stating “I
hereby turn over to Ism, Incorporated, everything I have, including my freedom,
and the freedom of my children, and my children’s children, in return for which
said Ism promises to take care of me forever.” Wouldn’t it be nice to get the
opportunity to sign onto the existing social contract before being forced into
it? These are vague terms for a contract, but no more vague that the unsigned
social contract we’re forced to accept & hear about in civics class. Some
Libertarians argue that this sort of contracting should be legal for
individuals to do, because preventing indentured servitude and paying a living
wage somehow prevents the free market from working.

Luckily our John Q Public shows us how freedom (i.e. capitalism) works: if you
have an idea and can convince your friends (who in this instance have never
heard of a bank) to give you money, you can start a business and possibly
become a major corporation. This freedom is terrific, because Americans in
seersucker suits are free to make more money than the next 6 stereotypical
caricatures of foreign nationals from other capitalistic countries combined!
Better yet, America’s educational system that sends more (here, conspicuously
white) people to high school and college than any other stereotypical
caricature of a nationality. John Q Public, playing the voice of reason,
suggests that just a taste will show us the dangers of Ism, immediately
plunging his peers into a totalitarian wet dream.

Factories chain their workers to their stations, Unions mark their workers (double-unluckily ‘1313’), and anti-strike laws prevent workers from participating in collective action.

Here in the future of capitalist America, you don’t need chains when you can
have mandatory unpaid security checks to waste employees free time and
adult-diapers to prevent paid bathroom breaks, so employees don’t waste
your time. States have prevented the danger of union membership by
implementing right-to-work laws that have made membership optional, and in
some cases dismantled unions. Why spend your hard-earned money for union
membership when you can get the benefits of the Union’s collective bargaining
and have a few extra bucks to spend? If you take a Union job, in a state with
Davis-Bacon laws, and you’re not a member of the union you get the
‘prevailing wage’ which the majority of union workers earn, and you still won’t
need to unionize. However, without funding and members, Unions are dwindling
and their collective bargaining power is going with it. Impact this with
at-will employment and you can lose (or quit) your job at any time for any
or no reason without notice, for reasons like unionizing, going on strike, or
literally anything else. Sure it may be illegal to be fired for some things
like race, religion, and gender, but if they want you out they could find any
or no reason.

“The State is the Supreme Court, no more Private Property, no more you.”

This brief segment firstly ignores that the Judiciary Branch is part of the
trinity of vested powers in the United States. As a function of this brand of
-ism, private property and capitalist have been outlawed, preventing CEOs the
freedom of exploiting their workers to receive any profits. However, in
“Communist” China CEOs are still very much involved in State-Capitalism
and are quite well-paid for their efforts.

Farmers are now slaves that can no longer vote

Another brief and terrifying segment. Fortunately voting is a fundamental right
in our democracy since 1965, although the voter rights act has been weakened since then.
We’ve dismantled chattel slavery through a civil war and reconstruction. Without the
vote, farmers can’t obtain seed, for some unspecified reason. But here in the
future we’ve proven that Agricultural Subsidies are a more palatable
method of controlling farm produce. Farmers are paid to grow various crops and
not others, but mostly they’re paid to grow corn; providing us with an
overabundance of cheap corn-based products such as feed, ethanol fuel additives
and high fructose corn syrup.

Politicians and Nay-sayers are put in pens and replaced by yes-men.

Here’s another chilling example of how much supposed American ideals have (or
haven’t) changed. Protesters and Nay-sayers are often placed in Free Speech
Zones far from the politicians who they wish to address. Dissidents are
be corralled and kettled, far from those in positions of power who they’re
trying to reach. Unchallenged by these dissenting voices, well-paid politicians
practically live in a world of their own far disconnected from the concerns of
their constituents.

John Q Public gets the last word,

When anybody breaches unity and tried to pit one of us against the other
through class warfare, race hatred, or religious intolerance. You know that
person seeks to rob us of our freedom and destroy our very lives. And we
know what to do about it!

Apparently what you do about it is watch this cartoon, then find a commie to
chase out of town because those ideas aren’t welcome here, free speech be
damned! In our modern political discourse it’s clear who’s winning the class
war and even the President-elect is more than welcome to stir race hatred and
religious intolerance, but history and this cartoon both show the dangers of
and one -Ism given totalitarian power: inevitable corruption.